Retorical Engineering Question

[greg334]

I have asked this question to a lot of engineers and they have different answers to the question.

Why is it we, mankind can put men on the moon and create the Bugatti Veyron, but we can't get more energy out of a gallon of fuel. Why?

If you don't know what the Bugatti Veyron is, check this out -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugatti_Veyron

I watch a Top Gear episode where they took it to it's top speed. What a car!

 

[riverrat2000]

rhetorical answer ,like the car and to answer your question there are 125,000 BTU's in a gallon of gasoline and that is all the energy you are gonna get, you can use them BTU's more efficiently but you ain't never,ever gonna get more energy out of that gallon it just ain't gonna happen, lol

 

[Tennesseahawk]

Do you really think they can't? Or that they just don't wanna? The mpg has gone down a few clicks on newer cars too, it seems.

-True independence can only be gained if you're trully independant.

 

[riverrat2000]

with all the crap that they are adding to the engines to please the tree huggers,efficiency is starting to go down.

 

[unorthodoxneon]

Did you see the vyron race the fighter jet?

 

[Paul56]

>I have asked this question to a lot of engineers and they
>have different answers to the question.
>
>Why is it we, mankind can put men on the moon and create the
>Bugatti Veyron, but we can't get more energy out of a gallon
>of fuel. Why?
>

This is a huge can of worms as there are many factors and trade offs at play here.

We can have extremely efficient "vehicles", but most if not all consumers would not want to operate them and so the manufacturers will produce what the market is willing to gobble up... vehicles with certain comforts that decrease the mpg.

The Hummer and Dodge Viper SRT10 are my toys of choice... to heck with the mpg! :+